Abstract
Laser scanning microscopy enables the capturing three-dimensional (3D) structures of biological specimens.
In conventional microscopes, iterative acquisitions of two-dimensional images while changing
the observation plane are required to construct 3D images, which limits acquisition speed. Recently, we
proposed a novel imaging method to acquire 3D images without changing the observation plane. The
proposed method is implemented in a light-needle scanning microscope combined with spatially transposed
detection using Airy beam conversion for fluorescent signals. The technique allows the rapid acquisition
of the 3D images of the fluorescent samples from a single raster scanning of a light needle.
Here, we review the imaging technique realized using Bessel and Airy beams—so-called “structured
light”—in laser scanning microscopy. In addition, we discuss the future applications using the structured
light in biological imaging.
